AMAZING LETTER FROM AN IRISH SOLDIER

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2646, 17 December 1915, Page 4

AMAZING LETTER FROM AN IRISH SOLDIER

i RECRUITING IN PRISON FOR, TRAITORS The "Freeman's Journal" recently stated that an Irishman ■ belonging to a British Tegiment, and who is a prisoner, of War in Germany, got ..the following letter through recently to a friend 111 London, evidently without tho supervision of the prison t'ensor:— ''You may not know at home why we were sent here. 'VJ'oll,- all Irish Catholics were sent to Limburg, and after a couple of : Weeks jioger Casement and a pnest from Texas came along and tried to get our men to join the German Irish Brigade, but I am pleased to say that they were very unsuccessful. 1 told our men to have nothing to do ■ with those people,l. said to them, 'Think of .your fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, wives, and children, also j feme'mbtir that you are Irishmen and British soldiers.' I, said, 'How would tlid Irish -Party be able' to face the Government if any of you turned traitors?' "So when one morning I was at —— I waf? ordered to proceed along with my' company, and I was tlie first man to be taken, out to be sent a Way from that oalnp and. I Was'joine<J> by men. ■We. ivere then marched away and split up into thirteen parts and sent to difftrent camps. My last words to my company weft: 'Keep aWay from the Berlin brigadiers, and remain loyal to your King, and <!ountry.' They cheered me, and then sang 'God save tlio King" and 'A nation once again.' So far as I know they got only -three mon out of 3000. "They (the Germans) have old men 60 and 60 years of age doing guard over .us, with only one night oft, and I can assure you that they are very discontented, mostly all Poles. I go now and agaiti to , and it is terrible to se* the people: they.are half-starved. You could count all tlie loaves of bread you see in tho shops on your fingers. I saw tlie othor evening when I : was' out about/ 180 boys between"]s and .17, years of age drilling, and they. were terrible ■wrecks. "They are at their wits' end to gel men to go to'the front, as they say that their losses are very heavy. Their men are complaining daily about the amount of food they are allowed. They even try to get some from the prisoners here. Oh I' it is terrible. Potatoes and stale cabbage for dinner, water and meal (In. dian) for breakfast and supper. We get jib.', black bread made, from potatoes, and'-it is -sour,; but, thank' God, and the kind people at,home, we don't eat any of,it. Their troops are allowed"4lb. per week, and meat twice per week—6oa. /'Theyfare stripping all'the lead fittings from the buildings in tho town. They also took the boilers in their barracks away, and the Russian prisoners had moss tins made of copper, and they were taken: off tliem. Inis was done three months ago. "We got the 'Continental Times' issued free, and they tell us that wo are getting beaten all over the place. Sometimes they ask us what ,we think of the news, and we tell them that their boots are pinching them; To-day we got tlie paper, v and they tell us that the. end of the .war. is in sight, that an-, other winter, campaign can bo avoided as we aro. beaten to a standstill."